Twenty years ago, the search for planets outside the Solar System was a job restricted to science-fiction writers. Now it's one of the fastest-growing fields in astronomy with thousands of exoplanets discovered to date, and the number is rising fast. These new-found worlds are mo ...

Fifteen years ago, the search for planets - and life - outside the Solar System was a job restricted to science fiction writers. It is now one of the most rapidly growing fields in astronomy, with more than 4,600 of these 'exoplanets' discovered so far. The detection of these wor ...